South Bombay residents rejoice after state scraps Mantralaya parking plan

Mumbai: The state government which had rolled out a plan of reserving four lanes around Mantralaya to allow government employees to park their vehicles exclusively has dropped the idea after facing staunch opposition from the residents of the surrounding area.
As an alternative, the government has now acquired a multi-storied parking facility by MMRDA in the CR2 shopping mall, Nariman Point where 200 vehicles can be parked. The MMRDA will not charge anything for this space for a year.
In June this year, the home department, in association with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the traffic department, reserved four lanes around Mantralaya, including HT Parekh Marg (near Akashwani), Free Press Journal Road, Maharshi Karve Road and Jeevan Bima Road to allow the employees to park their vehicles. One lane each on these roads is used by the residents of the areas who were enraged after they learnt about the plan. They pay ₹2,500 and ₹3,000 every month to park their vehicles.
The resident associations and Advanced Locality Management (ALM) approached Colaba MLA and state Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar to intervene in the matter. ALM is a community-driven initiative aimed at improving local governance.
Showing his support for their cause, Narwekar convened a meeting with them and said “It is unfair to these residents, as they don’t have space to park their vehicles within their heritage buildings. They have been parking on the roads and they should be allowed to do so.”
The ALMs explained their plight and said all the old buildings along the Karve Road, which is a part of the Unesco World Heritage site, had very limited parking within their compounds as they were designed in the British era in the 1940s when there was no need for creating separate parking spaces.
“After the meeting convened by Narwekar, we halved the plan and asked our employees not to park on these roads. We have made arrangements with MMRDA for 200 parking lots at CR2 next to Vidhan Bhavans for the government employees. The MMRDA will not charge us for a year,” said an official from the home department.
The employees, however, are finding it difficult to reach Mantralaya after parking their vehicles at CR2 mall as they have to walk for more than 13 minutes. “Plus, all the 200 lots reserved for Mantralaya employees at the parking lot hardly get occupied,” said the official.
The official added that they need at least 500 parking lots for the cars owned by the officers and employees.
“We are thankful to Narwekar for his intervention that helped us in getting our parking space back. The government should make appropriate arrangements by constructing parking lots for their employees,” said Atul Kumar, president, Nariman Point Churchgate Citizens Association.
Narwekar said, “After the residents approached me, I convened a meeting with the officials from the home and other departments and asked to find a way out. The home department has now scrapped the plan.”
Residents from the area said that they faced the encroachment on their parking space for the third time. “And hope that such steps are not taken again in the future,” said a resident of Maharshi Karve Road.
Ashad Mehta, president, of Oval Cooperage Residents Association, “We presented our calculations in the meeting over the number of flats and the availability of the parking lots for us. The speaker and our MLA were considerate over the issue and asked the state government to put the proposal on hold till the election.”
Yash Gandhi, a resident of Oval View, opposite Oval Maidan said, “We had written to the BMC in the month of February after we learnt about the plan, but there was no action taken by the civic body. It was only after Narwekar intervened the government dropped its plan. Some residents even pay ₹10,000 a month under pay and park and suddenly our facility was taken away. We are happy that it has been resolved now.”